Gary Lineker and Zoe Ball take biggest pay cuts as BBC salaries shrink 10 per cent after Covid year
THE BBC has today revealed the salaries of its biggest stars – with some taking a huge pay-cut this year.
Gary Lineker is still the broadcaster’s highest earner – despite the Match of the Day presenter taking a whopping £390,000 cut from his salary.
The star, 60, last year agreed to give up around £400,000 of his £1.75m pay as part of a five-year deal.
Lineker, who has been anchoring the BBC’s coverage of Euro 2020, is now earning £1.36million-a-year but is still the biggest earner.
Zoe Ball salary was on the list by £230,000 from 1.36million to £1.13million after she asked for less money.
The It Takes Two star requested the 28 per cent reduction as she felt “uncomfortable”.
Her annual salary is now £980,000 as the pay cut was taken mid-financial year.
The radio presenter last year bagged £1million more a year as the BBC faced a gender pay-gap backlash when she moved to BBC Radio 2 Breakfast five days a week.
It came despite her losing a million listeners when she took the show over from Chris Evans.
The BBC revealed it’s top earners – those who earn more than £150,000-a-year – as part of its Annual Report.
Just three of the Corporation’s highest-paid stars received a pay rise this year.
Radio 1’s Scott Mills’ pay rose by £30,000 and fellow DJ Greg James’ was bumped up by £35,000.
Mills’ new salary saw him bumped into the top-ten earners after Graham Norton left his Radio 2 show in December.
Stephen Nolan, who presents a 5live radio show, also saw a salary increase of £15,000.
Salaries have shrunk by ten per cent after the broadcaster chopped its wage bill in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
The total number of staff with salaries above £150,000 has gone down slightly, from 76 in 2019/20 to 72 in 2020/21.
Just over £19million was spent on the BBC’s top stars – down from £21.7m the year before.
There are four women among the highest ten salaries, the annual report revealed.
Fiona Bruce remains in the middle of the table despite taking a £45,000 paycut to £410,000.
Lauren Laverne’s £399,999 salary has remained the same, while Vanessa Feltz’s wages are down to £394,999 from £409,999.
Elsewhere, Naga Munchetty has taken a pay bump of £195,000 to more than £255,000 a year.
But salaries made through BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s commercial arm, are not revealed.
This means stars such as Claudia Winkleman do not feature in the report as Strictly Come Dancing is a BBC Studios production.
The BBC said: “Covid-19 has made the on-air environment highly volatile,
with delays to productions and the cancellation of live events, especially sport.
“Despite this, we have ensured a stable gender split of 56:44. We have demonstrated our ability to deliver improvement since initial publication, with further improvement expected in the forthcoming year as we move towards a 50:50 balance on a gender basis.
“During the year we have been able to reduce the number of individuals in on-air roles earning over £150,000, the total cost of individuals named and also the average amount paid to each of these individuals.”
